During the early stages of a baby's or child's development, there is an instinctual need to suckle and chew. These instincts encourage feeding and working the child's baby teeth and gums to promote healthy development. Many teething type devices are available to a parent to provide the child with something to suck and chew on while not actually feeding. These devices typically include a soft body that is placed in the child's mouth while under the supervision of the parent.
A byproduct of the child chewing sucking on the teething device is the production of saliva or “drool” which escapes from the child's mouth and onto their clothing. Often the child is held by the parent or another while using the teething device resulting in the drool running onto the parents clothing as well. Additionally, other fluids or matter such as mucus, blood, fluid or solid food particles may escape the child's mouth and fall onto the clothing.
Typically, parents carry an absorbent material such as a cloth over their arm or shoulder when holding the child during teething or feeding. This allows the parent to burp or otherwise rock the child without fear of getting fluids onto their clothing. This presents its own problems, however, in that the cloth may slip off the parent and may require two hands to deal with the teething device and separate cloth, as well as holding the child.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a teething device capable of receiving and securing a separate cleaning cloth to facilitate use of both by the parent.